ABC cancels ‘Samantha Who’

Show was expected to return next season

ABC has canceled the Christina Applegate starrer “Samantha Who?”

ABC Studios laffer, which had been expected to return, got caught up in this year’s belt-tightening trend at the networks. According to an insider close to the show, decision to scrap “Samantha” came down to numbers. The show couldn’t slash its budget deep enough to make a third-season pickup work.

ABC had been mulling a plan to decrease “Samantha’s” budget by changing the way the show is shot — moving from single-cam to a multicamera format. Alphabet was looking to slash as much as $500,000 per episode from the show’s budget.

But “Samantha” became expendable once ABC picked up such a hefty number of series for next year — 10 in total (Daily Variety, May 18). With that large a crop of frosh series, it no longer made sense to bring “Samantha” back.

“Samantha” was initially a strong performer for the Alphabet on Monday nights in its debut season, but faltered this season after moving to Thursdays.